"So, you're all competing in the tournament?" Elijah asked, trying his best to play it cool. The last thing he wanted was to be seen fawning over a woman he'd just met. This wasn't like the tour he'd taken just before leaving Earth. She wasn't just some random, one-night stand waiting to happen.
He wanted more.
But he didn't want her to know that. Not yet. Not until she gave him some sign that she wanted something similar. And besides, it wasn't as if he had time for romance. With his training schedule, he rarely got a night off. The tournament was on the horizon as well, and Elijah suspected that his free time would soon grow even scarcer.
"Me and Kaelari are," said Alrhok. "Piki and Morin are too young. Like Sara."
Piki turned out to be the scaled gnome who was no bigger than a toddler. Meanwhile, Morin was the other humanoid. A slender, androgynous figure who looked even more elven than Kaelari.
"Oh. Sorry to hear that," Elijah acknowledged.
"Even if we'd reached demi-god, we would have had no chance of victory," said Morin in a deep voice that marked him as a male. Probably. Elijah still wasn't entirely certain, given the androgyny on display. "Most of the others are mid-tier. Some have even reached the peak and are working toward bolstering their Legacy before evolving."
"We're just shoring up cultivation while we finish at the Academy. But winning the Fang would definitely count as a significant Feat of Strength," added Piki. "Too bad we can't participate."
"I see," Elijah said. Then, he turned his attention to Kaelari. Their eyes locked for a brief second, and something seemed to pass between them. For Elijah, it felt like his world stood still. "What about you?"
"What?" she asked.
"Are you trying to bolster your Legacy?"
She shook her head, then pushed a lock of white hair behind her ear. "No. I needn't worry about that for years yet," she answered, her voice soft but enthralling.
"And you?" rumbled Alrhok.
Elijah shrugged. "I'm just playing things by ear. Kirlissa asked me to participate, so that's what I'm doing. In retrospect, I'm not even sure what the rewards are. I think I zoned out when that was explained to me."
"Prosperity herself requested your participation?" gasped Piki.
"Of course she did," Sara answered for him. "He's her favorite."
"I thought you were," Morin posited.
"Nope!" Sara excitedly replied. "Not for a long time. I told you how Elijah saved me from the clutches of a dragon-killing cult, right?"
"Multiple times," groaned Alrhok.
"Anyway, there I was. Not even sapient yet. On the verge, though!" she went on. "And boom! Trapped by a bunch of jerks who specialize in that kind of thing. They were going to chop me up and eat me!"
"I think they were just going to use you like a natural treasure," Elijah interjected.
"Even worse!" she crowed. "But just before they completed their terrible ritual, Elijah shows up!" she went on, slamming her fist against the table, rattling the glasses containing everyone's drinks. "Bam! Slash! Bite! He took them down like it was nothing. And he was still a mortal, too!
"He even changed one of his spells to get me out of there before the head bad guy showed up!"
"As a mortal? Is that possible?"
"Nah. Can't be," Alrhok replied to Morin's objection.
"Show them the scars!"
"I don't have them anymore."
"Sure you do," Sara insisted, grabbing the neck of his shirt and ripping it apart. With feigned innocence, she said, "Oops. Do you see his scars, Kaelari? Just between those two bulging muscles."
Elijah looked down at his bare torso.
"Um…"
Elijah never thought he'd see a dragon blush, but there it was.
"Those little hairline cracks?" asked Alrhok, completely unaware of what was happening. He peered close. "I can barely see them."
"That's because he has a silver-tier body," Sara said, recovering from her "mistake" that left his chest bare. "He has tier five in every aspect of cultivation. Except core, but that's only because there was nowhere strong enough on his home planet. Or in the abyss. Where he was stranded for thirty years, fighting corrupted monsters and evil tyrants."
She waggled her eyebrows again.
"Pretty impressive, right?" Sara asked, her question obviously directed at Kaelari. "And anyway, that's how he became a dragon. Mother was so impressed by his heroics that she just had to bring him into the family."
"Wow."
"What were you doing on his planet in the first place?"
"Mother thought I needed to see some new things before I reached full sapience."
"And how did you let yourself get caught?" came Alrhok's next question.
"Not important!"
"Seems important."
"Definitely not. What's important, Alrhok ak Unar, is that Elijah is an awesome hero, and I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him," she said, her voice turning icy as she fixed the huge dragon-man with a withering glare. "Right?"
"Uh…"
"Don't you think it's impressive, Kaelari?" Sara asked, turning her attention back to the woman in question. Her tone had instantly shifted back to normal. "Maybe you and Elijah can talk about it. In private. Maybe over lunch? At a romantic waterfall in the –"
"Sara."
She turned innocent eyes on Elijah. "What?"
"Can I talk to you?"
"Sure."
After that, Elijah dragged Sara away and into a quieter corner. "What the hell was that all about?" he demanded.
"Just hyping you up!" she exclaimed with a grin. She punched him the arm. "You're awesome. Kaela is awesome. You would be great together! It makes so much sense."
Elijah sighed. "Can you tone it down?"
"Sure, sure. Less heroic deeds and more tales of your bedroom prowess."
"No."
"Uh…I could tell her about the size of your tree."
"What?"
"You know. The one in the abyss."
Elijah took a deep breath. "How about we just have normal conversations? Can we do that?"
"But that won't get her to like you," she insisted. "She needs to know all the cool things you've done."
"Just let me worry about my own love life."
"Oh, so you do like her?"
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to!" she said, following it up with a little dance. "I am the matchmaker!"
Elijah just sighed. "Please just try to be normal."
"No guarantees," she replied, obviously drunk on the power of her matchmaking abilities. "C'mon. Let's seal this deal!"